Trade-offs between different early childhood interventions: evidence from Ecuador

Using a discontinuity in the funding scheme, we evaluate the impact of home visits and of child care centers on children and their mothers from poor families in Ecuador. The two interventions represent a trade-off between child outcomes and mother’s psychic well-being on the one hand, and labor market participation and family income on the other hand. We find that home visits are beneficial for children’s cognitive outcomes and health and for mothers’ psychic well-being but reduce mothers’ labor force participation. Child care centers, on the other hand, turn out to have no impact on children’s cognitive outcomes, harm their health and the psychic well-being of their mothers but raise mothers’ labor force participation and family income.